Most governments in Latin America have failed to recognize the rights of indigenous people and their right to their own traditional territories.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I would say that the U.S. has overlooked Latin America. Their priorities have always been somewhere else. And that is a problem and that is a mistake.
Bolivia is a majority indigenous nation, but that majority has always been excluded.
If people can't acknowledge the wisdom of indigenous cultures, then that's their loss.
I must try and break through the cliches about Latin America. Superpowers and other outsiders have fought over us for centuries in ways that have nothing to do with our problems. In reality we are all alone.
Ironically, Latin American countries, in their instability, give writers and intellectuals the hope that they are needed.
Honduras was the original 'banana republic,' and its poverty remains extreme.
Only two countries in this hemisphere are not democratic, but many countries in both Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, are really fragile democracies.
The greatest failure is that although we have created institutions, we have not created a civil society.
No one can feel as the owner of the country and no one can feel excluded from the right of property. We must all suffer Colombia.
Most governments in the United States in a hundred years have not respected the peoples of Latin America. They have sponsored coup d'etats, assassinations.